Scientists in the Netherlands have sucessfully taken cells from a cow, and turned them into strips of muscle that were then combined to make a patty. Google co-founder Sergey Brin, was revealed today by the BBC as the project's high profile mystery backer.

The burger started with with stem cells that were extracted from cow muscle tissue. These cells were then cultured with nutrients and growth-promoting chemicals to help them develop and multiply in the laboratory. Just three weeks and more than a million stem cells later, they were moved into smaller dishes where they coalesced into small strips of muscle about a centimetre long and a few millimetres thick. It takes nearly 20,000 strands to make one 140 gram (5 ounce) burger.

The researchers behind the project say that the technology could be a sustainable way of meeting what they say is a growing demand for meat in the future. Currently, scientists can only make small pieces of meat as larger ones would require artificial circulatory systems to distribute nutrients and oxygen.

The burger produced today carried an estimated price tag of just over 250,000 euros, ($300,000 US).